User blog:L1242092/Splexit: My impressions
Since Splexit is apparently remaining a permanent part of the game, I wanted to share my thoughts on how it has impacted the game. I was hoping some of the responses to the public poll would get posted, but since they haven't and since I wrote this whole big thing about it, I felt I would share it all here for others to comment on, if they should like. Splexit: Good or bad? Blox Cards has felt more healthy post-Splexit, but I believe that is more due to Splexit as a fresh project rather than Splexit as a mechanics change. To put it another way, Blox Cards is better that it is changing, but not necessarily better for any reason why it changed. To my understanding, there are three goals to Splexit: eliminate splash, weaken rainbow decks, and slow down the game. Here's where I feel each of these goals stand. Eliminating Splash This was the most successful effect of Splexit. I have not seen monocolor decks running any cards from other colors as a one-off, except where their design suggests they should be there (Gravity Inspector). Because several cards that had entirely white costs have been given an icon of a single other color, these cards that may have been common to these kinds of decks before have vanished. Outright success, but practically a gimmie. Weakening Rainbow Decks Successful in the sense that rainbow decks I have seen run many fewer cards that cost colored icons, or their colored icon costs are rather low. In most cases, this pushes these decks toward running lots of weaker cards, which results in weaker overall decks. The similar side effect is that multicolor decks of two or three colors have much less value at the start of the game. Since they lost more icons overall compared to monocolor decks, their potential in the early game is weaker by comparison unless they run more white-costing cards or some of their early-game white-costing cards received significant buffs to compensate. This ties in very closely with the last goal of Splexit. Slowing Down the Game If everyone was running the same decks that they ran pre-Splexit, the game would certainly be a great deal slower. The issue is that not only have several cards been buffed to compensate for losses of icons, but decks are simply running more white-costing cards so that they are more consistently able to play at the start of the game. While decks may be only able to play weaker fighters without initial access to colored icons, decks on both sides are doing this, so everyone is still summoning fighters. Moreover, since monocolor decks are no longer running splash, it is easier for them to find cards to play to generate their color's icon, which means they will more consistently be able to sacrifice cards for bigger openers than multicolor decks post-Splexit. The pace of the game is very closely linked to the resource system as a whole, and Splexit does very little to address it, at most restricting monocolor decks less than multicolor decks in opening hand feasibility. Some games in Blox Cards end, or are at least "determined", very quickly due to how resources are generated. In almost every deck, you can choose to sacrifice cards to generate icons to play other cards and make a big play. If this really works, or really doesn't, one player can end up with a massive advantage in the game that can quickly bring it to a conclusion. The option to do this still exists post-Splexit, and as mentioned before, the changes to deck compositions means that monocolor decks are more easily able to find icons of their color to make these big plays. If these kinds of moves are done successfully at the start of the game, it can shut out the other player, deny them their own resource generation, and quickly lead to a win. If it backfires, that player is left with many fewer cards, likely fewer icons, and will quickly lead to a loss. The only difference Splexit has made here is giving monocolor decks more flexibility to choose when and how they make these kinds of plays, and this extra advantage in the early game allows them to more often make early decisions that result in early "determined" games or game wins. Monocolor decks already had more consistency in a long game with icon generation and flexibility since they all generate, discard for, and cost the same color. Multicolor decks had more consistency in the early game with more resources to tap into immediately than monocolor decks. Post-Splexit, the advantage in both areas stands with monocolor decks. The new multicolor support cards that were created do not offset this. The value they generate is slow, requires them to be played, and requires them to survive, and they do not discard for multiple icons, so they are no more useful in the early game than another card of their component colors. Their long-term value is limited by how little they impact the board, how slowly they generate value, and the opportunity cost of instead running a card of their component colors that could actually affect the board state. Specifically, the NNMM cycle requires having already generated colored icons from other cards or sacrificing many of these cards to pay the cost, the NNNNMMMM cycle is a more extreme version of that with refunds to colored icons, but the added drawback of eliminating all white icons, which are more valuable as decks run more white-costing cards to establish an early game presence, and the WWWW cycle have similar cost issues along with having zero board presence. While multicolor deck users may be trying to math or feel out how many of these cards to put into their decks or whether they even should, monocolor decks continue to play exactly the same as they did before, except with cards trending to cost more white and less of their color. Conclusion I like Splexit because it makes the game feel fresh. It was a fun experiment. However, it makes the game feel overall worse, pushing the game more towards monocolor decks overall than it did before. Where monocolor decks pre-Splexit had the advantage of being mono-resource and being able to splash other colors for significant boosts of power, they post-Splexit have the advantage of not having to generate multiple colors in order to get going or keep going. It was an advantage they had before, but the splash helped offset that, unfortunately leading to a different advantage in splashing. There is no reason why multicolor decks could not find ways of doing that as well. I find monocolor decks overall rather straightforward and frustrating to play against, and boring to play with. I do not want to see the game move into Splexit in its current state, not simply because I view it as giving more advantage to monocolor decks, but also because it is a resource-based mechanical change that least harms monored, one of the deck types that abuses its own resources and denies those of others with most effectiveness and consistency, and a frequent cause of early "determined" games. The one area where Splexit fails to hit its goal the most is the area where monored excels the most, and I can't approve such a change that bends so hard in favor of such a fun-ruining deck type. Slow down the game and add proper multicolor support by strengthening multicolor archetypes and mechanical synergy or similar mechanics between colors, severely gutting red (particularly with regards to its single-target damage-dealing effects and fighters that cost life for better stats), giving each color pair in the Uncomfortably cycle its own effect - not every color pair wants a 600/700 fighter at the cost of its other icons (start by mostly reverting Forbidden Power and go from there), and STOP WRECKING BOARD WIPE ACTIONS. Category:Blog posts